Nine Inch Nails Set To Debut At #2 On Billboard Charts

Launch Radio Networks reports: NINE INCH NAILS could sell more than 200,000 copies of its new album, "Year Zero", in its first week of release, according to sales tracking by Hits Daily Double. The disc, which was released on Tuesday (April 17), could enter the Billboard album chart at No. 2 next week, with AVRIL LAVIGNE's new offering expected to debut in the top spot. The last NINE INCH NAILS effort, 2005's "With Teeth", did debut at No. 1 on the chart with first-week sales of 272,000 copies.

"Year Zero" is a concept album that takes place in the year 2022, with the U.S. taken over by a religious dictatorship as the world nears environmental and social collapse.

The CD has been the subject of one of the year's most talked-about marketing campaigns, involving intentionally leaked songs, cryptic voicemails and a maze of eerie web sites.

Meanwhile, a "secret meeting" of NINE INCH NAILS fans as part of the "Art Is Resistance" movement was directed by cellphone calls to an abandoned Los Angeles warehouse on Wednesday night (April 18), where they were treated to a surprise NINE INCH NAILS performance. The set, however, was stopped after six songs by heavily armed "SWAT-like" troops who raided the location in a "Year Zero"-inspired scenario, according to CrowdCtrl.com. Video of the event is available at OpenSourceResistance.net.

It was concieved with good intentions, the concept is interesting and the marketing methods behind this thing are pretty involved and crazy but musically the execution blows.

Reznor has never repeated himself (the less said about remix albums the better) from one "true" record to the next but sonically it's just scratchy beeping emaciated pop songs.

You can tell theres some thought and depth to the mix but it's far to sparse and scratchy. Give me Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, Downward Spiral or The Fragile any day over this thing. That said "With Teeth" is still worse.